Pro-Palestinian Cornell Student Momodou Taal Ordered to Surrender to ICE, Faces Possible Deportation
The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to target free speech on college campuses and one doctoral student at Cornell University who was involved in pro-Palastinian protests on campus now finds himself targeted for deportation once again. Momodou Taal is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Africana Studies at Cornell University who is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the Gambia. He was suspended twice last year for joining a demonstration calling on Cornell to divest from Israel and faced deportation until massive protests pressured Cornell to allow him to reenroll, thereby extending his visa. Earlier this month, Taal, along with two U.S. citizens, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s executive orders that target foreign nationals who it claims are national security threats. “I believed I was going to be a target eventually,” says Taal.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/24/momodou_taal_cornell_deportation_palestine_protests
Georgtown Scholar Badar Khan Suri Remains in Immigration Jail After Masked Agents Snatched Him in D.C.
Badar Khan Suri is one of the many pro-Palestine scholars being targeted by the Trump administration. Suri, originally from India, is a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. Last Monday evening, Suri was ambushed by masked federal agents with the Homeland Security Department as he and his family returned to their home in Rosslyn, Virginia, after attending an iftar gathering for Ramadan. Suri was taken into custody without being charged with or accused of any crime. He was told the federal government had revoked his visa. Over the next 72 hours, Suri was transferred to multiple immigration detention centers, and he is currently jailed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, and his three children. Unlike Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate facing deportation, Suri “is not a political activist,” says
Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University. “He was just a very serious young academic focusing on his teaching and his research.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/24/badar_khan_suri_georgetown_nader_hashemi
Law Prof. Katherine Franke Accuses Columbia of Empowering Trump by Agreeing to $400M "Ransom Note"
Education Secretary Linda McMahon says Columbia University is on track to regain its federal funding after the Ivy League institution yielded to the Trump administration’s demands on Friday. The demands include banning face masks on campus, hiring 36 new security officers with greater power to arrest and crack down on students and appointing a “senior vice provost” to oversee the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies and the Center for Palestine Studies. Students say they will continue to fight for Palestinian rights and for Columbia to divest from Israel, but free speech experts are sounding the alarm. “We have no idea what comes next, but groveling before a bully, we all know, just encourages the bully,” says Katherine Franke, former professor at Columbia Law School.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/24/katherine_franke_columbia_university
Headlines for March 14, 2025
U.S. Judges Order Agencies to Reinstate Fired Workers, Trump and Musk to Halt Mass Layoffs, “A Slap in the Face”: Democrats Accuse Schumer of “Betrayal” After He Backs GOP Funding Bill, Jewish Protesters Takes Over Trump Tower to Demand Release of Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Punishes Students in Historic Hind’s Hall Protest as Trump Issues Ultimatum to Admin, Harvard Law Students Vote to Divest from Israeli War Machine, Trump and Putin Set to Talk as Zelensky Accuses Moscow of “Manipulation” over Truce Conditions, NBC: Pentagon Preparing Plans to Illegally Seize Panama Canal, Syria Signs Transitional Constitution Against Backdrop of Israeli Airstrikes, Military Occupation, U.N. Warns “Entire Families” Killed in Syrian Sectarian Violence as Some Alawites Flee to Lebanon, Argentinian Riot Police Crack Down on Pensioner-Led Anti-Government Protests, Cuba Releases 553 Prisoners, Fulfilling Its End of Collapsed Deal with U.S., Trump Resumes Family Detentions, Including Children as Young as 1,
DOJ Drops Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Immigraton Housing Contractor, Raúl Grijalva, Longtime AZ Congressman and Defender of Immigrant & Environmental Rights, Dies at 77
"Never Again for Anyone": 100 Jewish Activists Arrested at Trump Tower Protesting Mahmoud Khalil Arrest
Over 300 protesters with the group Jewish Voice for Peace flooded the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Thursday wearing red shirts saying “Not in Our Name.” They demanded the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and held banners reading “opposing facism is a Jewish tradition.” About 100 protesters were arrested and face charges of trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest. *Democracy Now!* was at the protest. “I refuse to allow this administration to speak in my name, to use our names as Jews, to carry out a fascist agenda,” protester Josh Dubnau said. “The Trump administration is a government that has far-right white supremacists, people that do the Nazi salute, and [Trump’s] fine with that.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/14/jvp_sitin_trump_tower_mahmoud_khalil
"Imperialism and Totalitarianism Go Hand in Hand": M. Gessen on Trump's Policies at Home & Abroad
We speak with the acclaimed Russian American writer M. Gessen, who says Donald Trump has entered his second term prepared to enact his radical Project 2025 agenda, including a crackdown on LGBTQ rights and dissent. Gessen, who has spent decades writing about authoritarianism at home and abroad, argues that while he was something of an “accidental president” in his first term, “Trump has been transformed by power” and is now increasingly “imperialist” and “totalitarian.”
If Successful, I Would Call It a Coup: A Retired Judge's Warning About Elon Musk's Abuse of Power
A pair of federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired federal workers at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury. The White House vowed to fight what it called an “absurd and unconstitutional order.” This comes as the White House and its allies have increasingly targeted judges who rule against the administration. Elon Musk has posted dozens of messages on his social platform X calling for the impeachment of judges who rule against the administration. We speak with retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner, who served as a federal district judge in Massachusetts for 17 years, from 1994 to 2011. “The distance between what they are trying to do and what is lawful is so enormous that anyone would rule as these judges are doing,” says Gertner.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/14/nancy_gertner_constitutional_crisis
Headlines for March 13, 2025
Mahmoud Khalil Speaks to Lawyers After NY Hearing, Judge Extends Block on Deportation, U.N. Experts: Israel Has Committed Genocide Through Attack on Women’s Health, EPA Moves to Undo Decades of Regulations on Air, Water, Polluting Industries, NOAA Faces More Layoffs; DOJ Guts Oversight Unit for Corrupt Public Officials, Acting Social Security Commissioner Privately Admits DOGE Cuts Have Imperiled Benefits, USAID Destroys Classified Documents After Judge Orders Trump Admin to Pay Out Foreign Aid, Trump Administration Flies 40 Remaining Immigrants from Guantánamo to Louisiana, Russia Recaptures Ukraine-Occupied Territory as U.S. Envoy Arrives in Moscow for Ceasefire Talks, Canada Hits Back at Trump wIth 25% Reciprocal Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum and Other Goods, Greenland Center-Right Party Wins Surprise Election Victory Amid Trump’s Threats to Take Over, Ugandan Forces Deploy to South Sudan as Power-Sharing Deal That Ended Civil War Unravels, Yale Suspends Legal Scholar and Palestinian
Rights Supporter Helyeh Doutaghi
As U.N. Accuses Israel of Genocidal Acts, Doctors in Gaza Denounce Israeli Blockade on Aid, Food & Fuel
A new report by United Nations experts says Israel has carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians in Gaza, including the destruction of women’s healthcare facilities, intended to prevent births, and the use of sexual violence as a strategy of war. This comes as talks on resuscitating the ceasefire deal continue in Qatar and as Israel continues its total blockade of food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory. For more, we speak with two American doctors volunteering at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza. “It’s a very difficult situation, and the attacks on the healthcare system that were done in the past 16 months have really undermined its ability to help people,” says trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa. We also speak with Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic and hand surgeon, who says about 350 Palestinian medical workers who remain in Israeli prisons without charge must be freed. Many who have been released describe horrific abuse. “The physical and
mental torture … presents a tremendous weight on the healthcare system here,” says Dr. Perlmutter.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/13/united_nations_israel_palestine_genocide
Mahmoud Khalil's Lawyers Press for Release of Columbia Univ. Activist Jailed in Free Speech Case
We get an update on the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, whose case has alarmed immigrant advocates and civil rights groups. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York on Saturday and told his green card was being revoked because of his role in Columbia University student protests last year opposed to Israel’s war on Gaza. He has since been moved to an ICE jail in Louisiana with little access to legal counsel or to his family, including his pregnant wife. On Tuesday, a federal judge extended an order blocking Khalil’s deportation while he considers whether the arrest was unconstitutional.
“It’s been very clear from the beginning that the government’s strategy is to cut Khalil off not just from access to the court here in New York, not just from access to his legal team, but from access to his support base,” says Ramzi Kassem, part of Khalil’s legal team.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/13/mahmoud_khalil_case_law
Ex-Education Dept. Official: Trump Is Dismantling Agency as He Weaponizes It Against Gaza Protesters
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has issued a warning to 60 universities that they’re being investigated for antisemitism and could face penalties. Her warning came days after the Trump administration withdrew $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University and as the administration attempts to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil over his involvement in campus antiwar protests at the school. At the same time, President Trump has pledged to abolish the Education Department entirely, with plans announced this week to fire an additional 1,300 employees, effectively cutting the agency’s workforce in half. “It’s pretty clear what this administration is trying to do, and it has nothing to do with antisemitism,” says former Education Department official Tariq Habash, who resigned last year to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s war on Gaza. “It has everything to do with Donald Trump’s vision for America, which is consolidating his authoritarian
power.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/13/education_department_trump_abolish
Tesla Takedown: Protests Grow Across the U.S. as Trump & Musk Brand Activists as Terrorists
We speak with Valerie Costa, an organizer behind the grassroots Tesla Takedown movement peacefully protesting outside Tesla showrooms to oppose billionaire owner Elon Musk’s role in government. Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency have led mass firings of federal workers and dismantled entire agencies. As protests against Tesla grow and sales plummet, the company’s stock has lost about 40% of its value since the start of the year. This week, President Trump personally intervened on behalf of his adviser and held a promotional event with Musk at the White House, where he said he would buy an electric vehicle and declared attacks on Tesla dealerships to be “domestic terrorism.” Meanwhile, Musk personally attacked Costa, falsely accusing her of “committing crimes” in a post on his X social network. “They’re peaceful, nonviolent protests,” says Costa, an activist and organizer in Seattle. “Protesting Tesla … is
ultimately about hitting Elon Musk’s bottom line.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/13/tesla_protests_elon_musk_doge
Headlines for March 12, 2025
U.S. Resumes Military Aid and Intelligence Sharing as Ukraine Backs 30-Day Ceasefire Plan, MSF Condemns Israel’s Gaza Blockade: “Aid Should Never Be Used as a Bargaining Chip in War”, Israeli Forces Kill 4, Including Palestinian Grandmother, in West Bank Raids, “Absolutely Unacceptable and Illegal”: Lawmakers Demand Release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE Jail, House GOP Approves Short-Term Spending Bill with $13 Billion in Nonmilitary Cuts, Department of Education to Fire Additional 1,300 Workers, Cutting Workforce in Half, EU Retaliates as Trump’s 25% Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports Takes Effect, “Have You No Decency?”: Republican Congressman Misgenders Rep. Sarah McBride in Transphobic Attack, New York Gov. Hochul Bans 2,000 Prison Guards from Civil Service Jobs After Wildcat Strike, Texas and Louisiana Death Row Prisoners Win Reprieves from Execution
Trump's Trade War: Why Lack of Universal Healthcare Makes U.S. Less Competitive
President Donald Trump’s growing trade war against other countries is wreaking havoc on financial markets, upending the global trade system and angering long-standing U.S. allies. Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on a range of imports, including aluminum and steel, since his inauguration. Many countries have responded with their own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, though countries have also delayed or withdrawn some of the levies as the Trump administration makes near-daily changes to its trade policies. We speak with investigative journalist and author Dave Lindorff, who says the Trump administration’s drive to bring back manufacturing and other jobs that have been outsourced over the last several decades is ignoring the role of healthcare in raising costs. “The fact that we don’t have national healthcare here like they have in Canada … is making American industry not competitive,” says Lindorff.
"Impeach Trump Again": John Bonifaz on Fighting Trump's Lawlessness, Corruption & Attacks on Judges
More than 250,000 have signed a petition to support an impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, who was twice impeached during his first term. The Impeach Trump Again campaign is being led by the advocacy group Free Speech for People. “This president has already committed multiple abuses of power since assuming the presidency, and the framers designed the Constitution to ensure that we would not have a monarch or a tyrant govern this nation,” says the group’s president, John Bonifaz. “When we see these abuses of power, we have to invoke this impeachment clause.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/12/donald_trump_impeachment
"Monumental Step": Ex-Philippines Pres. Duterte Arrested, Sent to Hague for Crimes Against Humanity
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is being flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court over his brutal “war on drugs,” during which police extrajudicially killed thousands of people, including many children. The ICC has been investigating Duterte since 2018. Duterte, now 79, served as president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He once compared himself to Hitler, saying he would be “happy to slaughter” 3 million drug addicts, and last year admitted under oath that he oversaw a “death squad” of gangsters while he served as mayor of the southern city of Davao. “It is really a monumental step in the dispensation of justice,” says Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello, who previously served in the House of Representatives of the Philippines. He notes that despite the Duterte family’s protestations, the former president’s arrest is the result of a meticulous legal process that offers him a fair trial. “Due process is
something that he never gave his victims,” says Bello.
Headlines for March 11, 2025
Ukrainian Drones Kill 3 in Moscow; U.S. and Ukrainian Officials Meet in Jeddah for Ceasefire Talks, Israel Accused of Weaponizing Aid and “Imposing Starvation” Amid Gaza Blockade, Judge Blocks Deportation of Green Card Holder and Columbia Campus Protest Leader Mahmoud Khalil, Linda McMahon Warns Universities to Combat “Antisemitism” or Lose Funding, Syria’s Kurdish Forces Sign Deal to Join Interim Syrian Government, Ex-Philippines Leader Rodrigo Duterte Arrested on ICC Warrant for Drug War Killings, U.S. Stocks Plummet as Trump’s Trade War Takes Its Toll, Elon Musk Says DOGE Is Coming for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and More, “Shockingly Unlawful”: Trump Executive Order Targets Public Service Student Loan Program, Climate Activists Arrested in Protest of Houston Energy Conference, Climate Groups Sue EPA over Freeze on $20B of Federal Funds, Trump Withdraws US from Climate Damage Compensation Fund, Longtime Washington Post Writer Resigns After Publisher Denies Piece Critical of
Bezos, Crews Start to Dismantle D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plaza
"This Is All Retaliatory": Judge Blocks Mahmoud Khalil's Deportation as Trump Vows More Arrests
A federal judge has blocked the deportation of recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the U.S. who was arrested by immigration authorities for helping organize campus solidarity protests with Gaza. He had been receiving daily threats stemming from an online smear campaign launched by pro-Israel activists before his arrest and repeatedly appealed to university administrators for protection. Khalil, who is a Palestinian green card holder, is married to a U.S. citizen. Upon his arrest, he was separated from his pregnant wife and transported to a detention facility in Louisiana, where legal experts say he is more likely to appear before Trump-friendly judges if his case moves forward. “Her husband was abducted before her very eyes [and] disappeared,” says Ramzi Kassem.
Kassem is the founder of the legal clinic CLEAR, which is contesting Khalil’s “baseless” detention and Louisiana transfer in New York court. Khalil’s unprecedented arrest makes good on President Trump’s promise to punish antiwar student activists, bringing together his administration’s attacks on free speech, education and immigrant rights. It is “part and parcel” of “Trump’s racist and fascist agenda,” says immigrant rights activist Murad Awawdeh, who adds that the Columbia University administration’s lack of response to Khalil’s high-profile case has been “incredibly shameful.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/11/mahmoud_khalil_ice_columbia_university_palestine
Noura Erakat: Trump's Abuses & Mahmoud Khalil's Arrest Are Products of U.S. Imperialism Coming Home
Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat responds to the arrest of Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and situates it in the long, bipartisan history of anti-Palestine suppression of free speech. “It was the Biden administration, it was the Democratic establishment, that has created the conditions that we are now seeing taken advantage of,” she says of Khalil’s targeting by the Trump administration for deportation. Erakat calls for continued resistance and study of U.S. imperialism and Zionism in the face of racist repression. “This is the precise moment we should be studying Palestine in order to understand ourselves and what’s coming and our responsibility in the world as an imperial power.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/11/noura_erakat_palestine_mahmoud_khalil
"A Devastating Tragedy": 1,000+ People Killed in Syria Amid Reports of Massacres Against Alawites
In Syria, over a thousand people have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians, in a spate of massacres largely targeting the country’s Alawite religious minority. Syria’s longtime ruling family, the Assads, are members of the Alawite sect. The recent clashes began Thursday after coordinated attacks by gunmen linked to the former regime killed over 200 members of the new government’s security forces. In response, government forces along with armed groups and individuals poured into Alawite villages throughout the region, carrying out reprisal attacks. Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has denounced the attacks and vowed to hold those responsible to account. Al-Sharaa is “trying to present a more acceptable image,” after years of Syria’s isolation from the global capitalist economy, says Syrian scholar Yasser Munif. “His priority is to end the sanctions against Syria and bring the funding for reconstruction. … He is managing all these tensions and contradictions, and it
will be quite the challenge for him to succeed.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/11/syria_democratic_forces_al_assad